Technical Director

The role of Technical Director was introduced in Football Manager 2020 and was mainly introduced to make the life of you as a manager a little bit easier. The Technical Director can really add something to your save if you have a large backroom staff. In this guide we explain what his main tasks are and what you should be looking at when you are looking to sign a Technical Director.

What are the tasks of a Technical Director?

The Technical Director is a role for a more bigger club rather than a small one.

When you are managing a club in the lower leagues you will not have a very large backroom staff, making it easier to manage these properly. When you arrive at one of the big clubs it is well possible you will have a backroom staff of more than 40 or even 50 people, making it a hell of a job to manage their courses and contracts. For example Manchester United have a total of 69 staff members. This is where the use of the Technical Director comes in.

The Technical Director is the one who is responsible for the backroom staff at a club. He will tell you how your staff is performing and he will give you feedback on certain areas, including contracts and coaching courses. You can delegate most of the tasks to the Technical Director, making him responsbile for offering new deals or finding new members for vacant positions in the backroom staff.

Key Attributes for a Technical Director

According to Football Manager a Technical Director has two key attributes:

• Judging Staff Ability
• Negotiating

Judging Staff Ability

The ability of a Technical Director to judge which abilities of staff members need improvement and act on that information.

Negotiating

How good the staff member is at negotiating transfer deals. A non-player involved in transfer or contract negotiations will seek better financiel deals if they are a more skilled negotiator, while someone less skilled will be somewhat more likely to agree to less favourable packages.

Responsibilities of a Technical Director

As a manager you have the option to delegate certain responsibilities to certain members of your backroom staff. We highlight the responsibilities you can delegate to your Technical Director.

• Hiring and firing Medical Staff
• Hiring and firing Scouting staff
• Hiring and firing Loan Manager
• Hiring and firing the Head of Youth Development
• Hiring and firing the Chief Scout
• Hiring and firing the coaching staff
• Hiring and firing Youth (U23, U21, U19, U18) staff
• Decide which staff should undertake courses
• Decide which youth staff should undertake course
• Renewing scouting staff contracts
• Renewing medical staff contracts
• Renewing Loan Manager's contract
• Renewing Head of Youth Development's contract
• Renewing the Chief Scout's contract
• Renewing Coaching staff contracts
• Renewing Youth (U23, U21, U19, U18) staff contracts

Advice

The Technical Director will also be available for a report on the level of the backroom staff in which he will provide advice on improving and developing the level of the staff. You have several options for the frequency, including weekly, monthly and yearly.

Why should you hire a Technical Director?

Maybe the article has already convinced you to sign a Technical Director but if not, let us tell you why every club should have one.

A good backroom staff is vital for player development and player recruitment. If you do things properly, you should be concentrating on winning matches and signing the best possible players for your club. You shouldn't be bothered with renewing tons of staff contracts, finding new staff members or send them on coaching courses to improve their attributes.

Your best alternative? The Technical Director!

Is he dangerous?

As all AI controlled stuff in Football Manager: yes, he can be dangerous.

At this moment it isn't possible to set specific instructions for a Technical Director the same as you can do with a Director of Football. That gives the Technical Director more freedom than you want to give an AI controlled role and this could lead to him signing mediocre staff on high contracts.

At this point there have been several requests on the official forums of Football Manager for adding the search instructions and to make 'finalising staff transfers' an additional responsibility.

Conclusion

We hope you have learned something about the Technical Director and why he could be important to your club. Is he vital? No, but he can definitely make your life easier and that is always something to consider in Football Manager.